codamedia

And more than one of us did confirm your preset had a problem. Then I built your preset from scratch in both Native, and on the Unit itself. Both presets DID NOT suffer the same problem. Those are my findings... as you have clearly stated, my opinions were not asked for so I'm sorry I provided those without your request! Most of us are enthusiastic Helix owners/users, not fan boi's... not part of a fan club. Some are hobbyists, some weekend warrior, and some are professional musicians. We help those that have problems with the unit. We do not have a problem confirming a bug... and most of us here admitted your preset contains some sort of bug, regardless of how it got introduced into the system. As "users" we like to help people through there agony... and we find ways to "successfully" work around those problems (even when they don't ask for help)... but we also defend the unit from ridiculous accusations and claims.

Regardless of the amount of overdrive/distortion/gain used.... volumes should be kept "at or near" equal whether the effect is on or off. The amount of gain is irrelevant... it's the overall volume that matters. IME.... a lot of gain "may" sound louder than it really is. I always underestimate the level of my higher gain presets and adjust them to low to begin with - only to turn them up more in the band setting.

Pretty sure he means "headphone volume". Any audio device turned up that loud is going to have hiss/noise. Amps, stereos, ipods, etc... etc.... However... as stated above, why are you running it that loud! For most presets, that would take out eardrums. Playing at relatively normal volumes will not induce any noise.

@havkayak I will try, one last time to help you! The patch that I created from the images in your OP works fine. It does not go silent after 10 hours let alone 3, let alone 30 minutes, let alone 30 seconds. You need to ELIMINATE YOUR COMPUTER from any processes you are doing by building your preset on the Helix. Don't even connect the Helix via USB during the procedure. This is the only way we can eliminate your computer and/or HX Edit from causing the problem! This advice has been given to you several times during this thread. You appear to completely ignore it... and never acknowledge it. That is really, really frustrating to some of us!

Nice feature when you think about it :) Seems to be, looks like this....

There are a lot of posts here I would like to "react" to, but the forum tells me I am "out of reactions" for the day. That's censorship! Unacceptable! Why would Line 6 do this to me? Anyone want to buy a Helix?

In short, you have read enough negative comments about the Helix to convince yourself that your one little "niggle" is just the start of worse things to happen. I suspect the vast majority of stuff you have read has already been resolved... but that won't matter. The damage has already been done to your perception. IMO.... you are seriously depriving yourself from a fantastic piece of gear over fear of fear. That's too bad!

Yep.... Brian May has 6 VOX AC30's on a Queen stage. He uses two at a time.... when one of the first pair dies the crews slides in the 2nd pair.... if one of those dies the 3rd pair is rolled up. According to Brian, they reach the 3rd pair regularly in an evening. Brian May does not stop using AC30's because they are unreliable.... he knows what to expect from his amps and he has learned how to work around it. The OP's problem is much easier to work around, he just refuses to do it. Even if I don't understand that choice... it is his to make.

There is no shortage of pro's using the Helix in Studio's and Live around this world on any given day! I don't know who you are, but I suspect their gigs are every bit as important as yours. Are you suggesting the likes of John McFee, Cory Churko, Billy Sheehan, Richie Castellano, Steve Howe, (and hundreds of others)... don't care about reliability? I highly doubt that! Your comment about amps and pedals misses reality. Most guitarists I know carry a spare amp... just in case. I always carried two amps... and nowadays with a modeling setup I carry a spare modeler. Nothing has changed in how I approach things, just the style of gear has changed. As several people have asked already.... have you built your preset from scratch, on the Helix itself, without being connected to HX Edit? Until you do that, your computer and/or HX Edit could be the fault and the reason Line 6 or others can't reproduce it from scratch.

There are not enough +1's available for this statement!

When the user can't handle it a Ferrari doesn't look so good when it's wrapped around a tree either! Back to a musical comparison.... :) Take a beautiful JCM800 1/2 Stack, and give that same amp to three players. The first will make it sound like a basket of moquitos The next will make it sound like a muddy undefinable mess The next will get a glorious tone out of it It's not the tools....

I'm with you on meters... but I'm sorry, I don't agree with this statement. I don't dig through any mediocrity on the Helix.... I bond well with this wonderful machine. If you are describing the presets and shared presets as "mediocre to bad".... well.... YEAH! Please don't tell me you are counting on presets for tones? I have NEVER found a preset that would make me happy, and I would NEVER expect one of my presets to make someone else happy!

Then I guess you don't use your PC or MAC or ANDROID or iPHONE, or "insert computerized device here" either? If you are using any of those then you DO know how to work around things that "might happen" at any given moment :) If you have lost faith, so be it! When I lose faith in something I sell it off and move on. When I am pleased with the next item - I know it is ONLY because I don't come across a bug that effects me, not because it doesn't have bugs that could occur at any time. Let's be clear.... your preset ALWAYS takes 3 hours to begin it's deterioration on my machine! It has NEVER taken less time! I think 3 hours is closer to the truth than anything else you are posting! Why are you on the user forums if you have no intent of accepting our assistance? Why did you ASK US TO HELP! Your agenda is clearly to shame Line 6 support.... I wish you had made that agenda clear from the beginning so I could have ignored this thread, you, and your problem.

I did miss that.... and don't agree with that comment at all. I can see where you are coming from when responding to that. I would still like to have a meter block though :)

Then I am disappointed that they were removed from the plans :) I can understand not making it part of the hardware, or "fixing a certain amount of resources" for it... but surely as a moveable block the person can decide to use or not wouldn't be hard, nor would it be detrimental to the unit. If I person fixates on meters and a poor sounding patch results from it.... that's on the user, not the tools. Fixating on a delay, or a reverb, or a distortion, or a compressor, etc... etc.. would have the same results :) @kringle... if you are recording with your Helix.... do you have a DAW at home? If so... set it up with a meter on the channel and use that for metering. I use my home studio console for the most part, but I also use a meter in the DAW now and then as well. Both work equally as well. My tones are extremely consistent regardless of what I am plugged into. Important to note: I use meters to get in the ballpark, and keep myself in the ballpark. In the end, it is your ears that do the final adjustments.

This is the political answer you create when you are called out for not having it on your device to begin with :) The single "most voted for" feature request on ideascale is meters, the 2nd is a digital clipping indicator (aka... input clipping at the AD conversion) That speaks volumes as to what the people would like to see.

Yes, those are two different scenario's.... and having it on the Helix is a third scenario. My point was not to suggest the benefit is the same in all situations, just that meters are useful in general. A closer look at the sentence I bolded. EXACTLY! The Helix itself may not clip internally, but eventually that sound will land on another device (console, FRFR, interface, amp, etc... etc....) and it is best to stay within certain thresholds when it does!

I would love to have a metering block that I could insert wherever I wanted in the chain to monitor the level, when I felt the desire to. The Helix is not the same as a "pedalboard > amp"... it is "pedalboard > amp > cab > mic > post EQ/effects". When I mix live, I monitor meters When I record, I monitor meters Why wouldn't I want to monitor what is happening in the Helix? I've never understood the denial of a good tool! Monitoring a meter does NOT MEAN I am a slave to that meter! I look at a meter like I do a speedometer in a car. Sure, I can get a good feel of what is happening without looking, but every now and then it is nice to look down and take a snapshot of reality! Sometimes I'm doing 75 when I thought I was doing 60 - 65 :) As for "use your ears". Tone and metering are not directly related. Why not both? Why deny anyone of a tool they want, especially when you are not forced to use it if you don't want to. That's like denying someone the desire for a high gain amp they want.... just because you don't have any interest.

I can see what Line 6 support has given up on you! The goal posts have once again moved in this thread. It started with 3 hours, it was altered to "30 minutes - 3 hours" and now it's 30 seconds? I am beginning to find this very unbelievable. Please post the configuration (effects on/off & snapshot settings) that can make this happen in 30 seconds? That would be a lot easier to troubleshoot than the 3 hours manifestation I have ALWAYS seen with your preset. There is an easy solution/workaround to your problem that I KNOW would work 100% based on all the tests/time I have spent with your preset over the past 2-3 days. Save your preset into a 2nd location (or more) and seamlessly switch between them every couple of songs. The problem is... I'm beginning to think you don't want a solution/workaround.

With a good set of Studio Monitors the LT will serve you well. Do you have an interface for recording. or were you planning on using the Helix? If this will be the job of the Helix keep in mind the LT has less inputs/outputs than it's bigger brother, and also does not have a MIC input. Other than that... they are virtually the same. FEATURES THE HELIX HAS OVER THE HELIX LT Only you can decide if any of these matter 2 additional sends (4 instead of 2) 2 additional returns (4 instead of 2) Scribble strips (LT compensates this with performance view) Separate headphone volume Microphone input with switchable phantom power Option of re-assigning 2 additional foot switches to stomps (10 stomp mode instead of 8) Digital I/O (spdif) 2 Expression Pedal jacks (LT has 1) External amp output (LT has to reassign EXP jack for this) CV output Sturdier construction....

When troubleshooting problems, it is important to go through the process of elimination. If you just repeat the same processes over and over you will never know what the culprit is. Do yourself a favor and don't do any copy/paste in HX Edit... do it on the unit itself and stay disconnected. If everything works on the Helix itself.... then it starts to break down when using HX Edit. BINGO.... it's a problem with HX Edit and/or a communication breakdown. But were you connected when this problem first showed up? Once HX Edit takes a dump it does so directly into the Helix because of how they sync. IMO... it is very important to take HX Edit out of the chain for a while to see how the UNIT is actually running on it's own. Like I said... I have not seen the hardware hiccup or fail on it's own, I have seen some anomalies when using HX Edit.

I find that ludicrous... I'm sorry! As I stated earlier... thousands of these machines are used every day on stages and in studio's around the world.... that would not be the case if they were as unstable as you seem to think they are. YOUR PROBLEM rears it's head over a long period of time.... up to three hours. The solution is to reload the patch that takes 1 second at most. If you can't work around that, then I suspect you will not get along with any piece of computerized gear... Using those presets from scratch it is running 100% in my Helix native without an issue - about 6 hours and counting now. The patch you shared failed after 3 hours consistently.

If you restart the unit without being connected to HX Edit... what do the set lists look like on the UNIT itself? I ask this because HX Edit is just another interface in the chain...and is subject to USB port communication errors! It is IRRELEVANT to the unit itself other than being a fancy interface.

I had some down hours with my gear... and although I consider this minor, I do think it's a bug. Some day this bug might effect me and others! Therefore I try to lend a hand in helping to isolate the problem. That's how this community works and I am very sorry to hear that you want to give up! Let me keep trying! How were your editing your preset that Line 6 sent you? On the unit In Helix Native Through HX Edit IME: Whenever I encounter odd behavior with presets/snaps/settings it is when I edit with HX Edit. However, I am well aware that HX Edit is nothing more than an interface for the unit, and it is dependent on a solid USB connection and subject to communications errors. Whenever I do my editing in Native... or on the unit itself - I have never had an issue.

One final update from my tests over the past couple days.... My own patch... which is more complex yet built in a similar manner to yours did not fail after 11 hours of operation. I then built your patch from the images you posted.... I didn't tweak every single setting exact, but I was careful to insert every single block in it's correct place with the correct effect/amp/split, and with the correct orientation (mono, stereo, legacy). Then made sure all effects were on that were on in the preset you shared. After 10 hours, that preset is still operation fine! At this point... I am suspecting a corrupt preset. although It's mild if it is just losing volume in a three hour window rather than freezing the unit like some corrupt presets can do. That's not a fair statement. There are thousands of these units on stages and in studios. Just a couple examples... they are on the Vegas Strip with Shania Twain, arena's and concert halls with the Doobie Brothers and in studio sessions from LA to New York including stops in Nashville. Do you really think these players would use it if it wasn't stable? It's a computer! They way you use it seems to be triggering something unforeseen. There is no question you have found a bug... whether it's in the software itself - or in a method of turning a preset corrupt. However - This is not a widespread problem, and when it happens it is extremely easy to remedy (reload the preset). It's an annoyance, just like Pro Tools is (or any other DAW) when it decides to crap the bed in the middle of a session, just like an amp is when it decides to go "poof" mid song, just like your smart phone is when it decides to drop a call or lose wifi, etc... etc... etc... Complex gear has glitches... IMO, if you can't learn to live with the small ones then maybe complex gear is not for you!